Cracked
by SlytherinGoddess69
Summary: What was it that finally pushed Tom Marvolo Riddle over the edge, turning him into the most evil Dark Lord the world has ever known? Read this shocking true story, and find out.


Disclaimer: Heyguesswhat?! --- Harry Potter © Mrs. J. K. Rowling. --- Shocker, I know.

A/N: Hey, everyone knows there was a _reason_ why Tom Riddle went… well, insane. This is just the how and why. : And the following chapters won't necessarily be written in this style. This is just the introduction. Anyway.

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Tom Marvolo Riddle was not a happy boy.

In fact, he was Mad.

Mad is an interesting word. It has countless connotations. It may just mean angry. It could mean obsessed. And finally, it can also mean insane.

Tom's particular Madness was a combination of all three characteristics. It was anger against all humankind, tempered with insanity, and an insatiable obsession with power.

The Tom we're talking about is only seventeen. A Seventh Year at Hogwarts. So how and why such intense cruelty was brewing in the body of adolescent that had barely finished developing was a mystery in the wizarding world.

Until now.

History buffs are found in every society, including the wizarding world. So it was not a surprise that many years after Voldemort's defeat, a group of wizards at their annual history convention proposed a new project. They had just finished the new and improved biography of Harry Potter. To keep up with the newest information, a Potter biography was revised each year. This latest edition included a chapter on a theory claiming that the Boy Who Lived was really a heroin sniffing drug addict who killed Voldemort because he needed the reward money to buy crack. The theory was accompanied with several pictures of an intoxicated Harry Potter screaming for weed.

This new edition, Harry Potter – How Drug Addiction Saved the World, was an instant best seller, beating out earlier versions. (Including the previous first place holder, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commerce, which had earned a grand total of 36 galleons. The book itself had cost 6 galleons.)

The Society of Wizarding Historians was suddenly flooded with money, a new and very agreeable experience. Thus, the new project was of a different nature than the Society had ever undergone.

It was proposed to start an extensive research project on the motives and personality of Lord Voldemort. For though he was one of the most famous wizard figures of all time, very little was actually known about him, other than the fact that he was "evil", and "wanted to kill off the entire world except for a select few that would remain to give him manicures". While these facts were probably true, the Society of Wizarding Historians wanted to try to see things from Voldemort's perspective. This would prove difficult, for one of the first things that the historians would discover was that he was insane.

But as they worked on, compiling countless eyewitness accounts, examining his childhood, and discovering his secret journal, a new picture of the Dark Lord began to emerge.

Sure, he was evil.

And sadistic.

And liked to kill little puppies for fun.

They were cute puppies.

Really cute.

But he hadn't always been that way.

Consider his first journal entry after arriving at Hogwarts.

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_September 1, 1938 _

_Dear Diary!!!_

_Just arrived here at Hogwarts! It sure is a swell place!!!! The people here are awful nice! I hope I can make lots of nice friends!!!! Got sorted into Slytherin! It seems like a real nice house! I met a lot of people here that can do magic! I think everyone can do magic! It's real neat! The food here is so good! I ate a lot!!!! My favorite was the chocolate tart!! I met my first teacher! His name is Professor Dumbledore. I thought his name was silly but I didn't tell him! He seems very smart and nice! I hope I'll learn a whole lot!!!!!_

_Love, Tommy_

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Notice the word "nice". It was used four times. Along with words like "swell", "neat", "friends", and "favorite". Notice the overwhelming use of exclamation points. Notice the peppy, disjointed sentences. And especially, notice the closing.

"_Love, Tommy_."

Now, compare that with his last journal entry at Hogwarts.

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_June 20, 1946_

_At last. At last, I get out of this hell hole. I've seen Dumbledore's smug, self-righteous face for the last time. I've had to contain myself walking through the hallways amongst my "peers" for the last time. Oh, how I've longed to tear them apart, to smear their tattered, bleeding carcasses across the dirty walls of this misbegotten place. "Peers". Hah. Filth. Slime. Oh, I'll kill them. I'll kill them all. I'll laugh at their dying screams. Fools, they think they have power. I'll show them power. I'll show them. The fools, they dared oppose me. Filthy mudbloods._

_I can feel the power within me, pulsing in my veins, waiting to kill. And I know where I can find those willing to follow me. _

_Good riddance Hogwarts. When I next see you, you shall be covered with the bleeding corpses of your worthless inhabitants. _

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Obviously, something must have happened in the time between those two entries. But what? What could possibly have prompted such a drastic change in a young boy?

The answer is not simple. Many factors were discovered. Among these were bullying, green beans, retainers, and puberty.

But the fact remains that most cruel and terrifying Dark Lord the wizarding world had ever faced was born in a cheerful, annoyingly optimistic little boy.

This is his story.


End file.
